Many people suffer from neck pain, and pain related to problems with the neck. This fact is not surprising, considering that the head weighs between 10 and 20 pounds and must be balanced on the neck, which is more technically defined as the cervial spine. The balancing of the head is accomplished by the neck joint capsules or envelopes, ligaments, and especially by the neck muscles. When the relationship between the head, neck, and shoulders is altered, that is, when the individual's posture is incorrect, the muscle-ligament stabilization of the neck is inadequate, and muscles and ligaments are under tension, resulting in neck pain.
Many diverse factors cause or contribute to incorrect posture which causes neck pain. Trauma, (i.e. so-called whiplash injury), arthritis, and disc degeneration are just a few of the causes of neck pain. The most common cause of neck pain in adults is emotional stress or tension. The sustained and unrelenting contraction of the neck musles is a mechanism retained from primordial "flight or fight" reflexes.
Whatever the cause, whenever there is a sustained contraction of all of the neck muscles, the blood circulation in the neck muscles is diminished. The lack of adequate blood flow diminishes the oxygen supply of the muscles and diminishes the ability of the blood to wash out the waste products of the muscles, both of which are damaging. This condition can be aleviated by proper posture, where neck muscles and ligaments are relaxed, and not stretched.
Research has shown that the major cause of recurring neck discomfort, stiffness, and headaches is muscle tension or spasms in the cervical spine, caused or aggravated by incorrect sleeping posture. Presently available pillows are not designed to fully correct this problem.
During the day, to prevent neck pain and its resulting effects, such as headaches, a person must be constantly aware of his or her posture, or wear a cervical collar. At night, a properly constructed pillow can help relieve muscle constriction, and thus aid in relieving tension of the neck muscles and promote proper posture. Prior devices attempt to accomplish this result, but are not designed to relieve all of the tension associated with neck pain. U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,261, for example, is directed to a device to properly align the cervical spine. The pillow of U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,261, however, is designed to properly support only the lower cervical spine and not the upper.
Many prior art pillows do not provide for comfort of the user if the user is lying sideways. For example, if the user of the pillow disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,261 were to lie on the side, the head would sink below the level of the ridge of the pillow and cause misalignment of the neck from the standpoint of relieving pressure on the neck muscles. The pillow structure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,917, as another example, provides support for the head while sleeping sideways, but is designed to stretch the neck muscles of the user while sleeping, rather than relieving muscular tension.